Most of us agree, that as we age, our current house might not fully satisfy our physical needs, along with our social desires, like it once had.

The fact is, once you get about 55 years old, a few things in your life start changing. This is often the age when many of your kids start leaving home.

In another ten years, you can qualify for senior discounts.

That house you raised your family in, is now a bit too big and lonely for your current lifestyle.

Whether you’ve decided that moving into one of our 55+ communities is right for you, or you’re just downsizing to a smaller house elsewhere, moving as an empty nester is really hard.

Tips to make a smooth move:

Too much stuff

Sometimes it’s hard to fully comprehend how much stuff you really have, until it’s time to move it all. You know you have a lot of stuff, but after you spend all day, packing up boxes, only to realize that you’ve only packed a single room, you can easily feel overwhelmed.

This leads me to:

Tip number 1

Start early. Don’t wait until the last minute to start packing. You might find that your room held a lot more stuff than you realized. On top of that though, you might find yourself taking a side trip down memory lane.

After all, those pictures you’ve been saving from your kid’s childhood are practically begging to be looked at.

As you’re boxing stuff up, you’ll need to throw out a lot of stuff. Undoubtably, you’ll probably find things that you thought you’d use sometime, but after twenty years, you still haven’t used them. If you haven’t used them in the last decade or two, how likely are you really going to need that thing?

Tip 2

Let it go.

You don’t need to hold onto every keepsake, knick-knack, and childhood toy from your and your children’s youth. Chances are, that even those things you thought might be valuable, are never going to be worth the hassle of storing them.

So go ahead, order a medium sized dumpster to place on your driveway. By the time you’re done, you might be wondering if you’ve technically been a borderline hoarder for the last several years.

If you’re into garage sales, you can make a buck or two on some of the stuff that’s in better condition. You might even make enough to pay for that dumpster.

Perhaps you don’t want to turn your front lawn into a flea market, so you could donate some of your gently used items to goodwill. Just be kind, they spend tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, hauling people’s junk to the landfill. They’re trying to help people, do your part to keep their costs down.

Roping neighbors and friends into helping you move is all good, especially if you are tight on cash. If you’re using them, you better have everything packed up and ready to go. Don’t wear that service down. If however you are in a financial position to hire some movers for a day, your neighbors, friends, and family will thank you.

Tip 3

Hire movers. Not only are they more practiced than your neighborhood church group, but they’re less likely to damage your home and furniture in the process. Plus, if there is a few days to a few weeks that you’ll be without a permanent home, many movers offer storage solutions to make the transition easier. This way, you won’t have to rent a storage unit and be forced to move twice.

Embrace downsizing

Your kids have moved out, you’re retired or thinking of retiring, why not declutter. There is peace in simplicity. For the next couple of decades, you have the chance to improve your quality of life, so go for it!

Leisure Villas builds Utah’s best senior communities for folks 55 and better. We’ve often said that living in one of our neighborhoods is so much more than an empty nest, and that’s because it is. People your own age, and with similar life circumstances, getting together, it’s a no brainer. Life here is fun.

Even though the kids have moved out, them and your grandkids will love to visit and enjoy the amenities that you now have to offer them.

Come on in, see for yourself. You deserve it.